In project management terminology, resources usually include equipment, materials, facilities, funding, time and people which are all required to carry out the tasks in a project. The basic purpose in managing projects lies in bringing together people to accomplish a common goal. Therefore, the important elements of project management lie in managing the resources who are a part of the goals. In case of lack of resources, there will be a restriction on the completion of the project.
Organize and prioritize your team tasks for success.
Most of the project managers know that availability, optimization, and resource scheduling are key to successful project management and so they focus on measuring resources who understand and motivate their team. They need to allocate limited resources to each project activity based on the priority that is calculated using the analysis. The motive is to create the most efficient schedule possible.
Table of Contents
Essential resources for your project
People
The hardest part of a project is team management. It involves various things like managing their workload, checking their availability and skills. Many of them will be involved in other projects at the same time. So, keeping a check on people in your project will make it a lot easier to do your resource planning. Spend time thinking through the different skill sets and the kind of tasks that are required on the project.
Capital
You need to know how much money are you spending on the project as you will need to pay for the little things involved in your project. Decide a budget on your project and be confident handling the numbers. Also, get sponsors for the money that needs to be spent. You will be able to get everything done when you have enough capital. So, for a project to be completed successfully, it needs to be adequately funded.
Material Goods
There are unlimited assets that a project will need. The goods vary from project to project like the software, hardware like cabling etc., equipment or machinery and property. Schedule these assets in the right way so that you do not clash with other projects requirements. If you do not plan the resources well you can create huge problems for your project.
These three project resources are the most critical for successfully moving in the right direction. And now when you know the critical resources, there is a need to manage these resources well for the success of your projects.
What is Resource Management and its importance
Resource management is an effective management of organization’s resources typically as the organizations have limited resources. So, for an effective management of scarce resources, there is a need of a resource allocation plan. Resource Management is a side of project management that undergoes careful management of resources like human, financial, and demands of project resources. However, management of resources is important for the project success and will prevent other unfortunate events.
Why is Resource Allocation so important in Project Management?
As you now know what is resource management and its importance in project management. Let’s now see why resource allocation is also an important part of project management.
Resource allocation involves the planning of how much resources are required and all the resources required for the project. Due to the economy going down these days there is a tough competition especially with regard to financial resources. It has lead to increase in the operating cost of doing business. As there is a limited budget for projects, resource allocation is important to ensure that there is no waste or misuse of any material. Being the important and difficult part of project management, it gives you the benefit of completing the half project as soon as you allocate it. It is not possible for every project manager to work in every situation and perform well in huge budgets. Therefore, we need to make the list of all the resources needed for the project and pick which is most important.
Despite advancements in the methodology of project management, resource allocation might always remain a challenge. However, if a team and the manager follows the necessary resource management techniques it will help in positioning themselves ahead of the game. So, to help you out with resource management, we are sharing some techniques for you to work on critical project areas.
1. Track all resources on one page
On a project management software, you can view a report of any specific resource. When you have a comprehensive overview of all your resources you can easily plan your project. You will be able to see the specific resource, its status, last login, count of assigned projects, milestones, overdue, and open tasks of that person. All this will help to view available or unavailable project resources, and build reports and you can share it with your executives, clients, or stakeholders.
2. Enter resource leveling—and scheduling improvements
“Any form of schedule network analysis in which scheduling decisions are driven by resource constraints.”
Resource leveling ensure easy resource allocation so that the team members do not complain about too much work or no work at all. A project management team needs to examine resource leveling. Today’s cloud-based collaboration platforms enable teams to have a greater amount of transparency in work allocation and balance the workload of resources.
3. Keep accurate time logs
When working on daily tasks, people often forget to update their records. Therefore, Tracking time spent on tasks is tricky. But with a time tracking software it is quite easy and whenever someone starts working on a task they can simply click the time to start tracking the minutes they work. This daily estimate of time logged in can help in making the more accurate planning of future projects.
4. Adjust your team’s workload
This is another important part of resource management in a project management. In cases like a task running over schedule, you will need to adjust the team’s workload so that the delivery is not affected and is done on time. With ProofHub, you can see on task list which team members is overloaded with tasks and identify whose schedule has more capacity. After you have identified all the risks, rearrange tasks to balance the workload and give light to critical areas.
5. Estimate risks
Identifying the potential risks in advance will bring some amazing results to a project. It will help you deliver results on time even if the worst case scenario comes to light. If there is a certain task that is likely to go over budget or undergo any risk that can impede the progress of the project, the assignee can set the risk as high for the particular task. This will help in diagnosing the problem and taking preventative action. These important tasks can also be kept together to ensure they won’t fall through the cracks.
Summary
Now you will be ready to work on how to do the work of managing resources. Do not overuse, overextend or over-allocate your resources as it certainly not a part of your best practices of project management. What works for resource management on your creative projects? Use a visual project management tool that works well for the project manager. Take immediate actions for your project management goals.
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- Project Manager Roles and Responsibilities
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- 10 proven strategies to inspire your teams to act after meetings
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